Language in Nigerian Correctional Education: Incarcerated Persons Speak.

PURPOSE: Language, as an integral aspect of human interaction, plays a pivotal role in the reformation process within the correctional setting. Nigerian correctional centers consist of a diverse population of incarcerated individuals originating from various cultural backgrounds, each possessing distinct linguistic abilities and comprehension. However, a conspicuous gap in the literature remains concerning the language practices of instructors in Nigerian correctional education programs and the active participation of incarcerated individuals in shaping their own educational experiences. The present study investigates the complex dynamics of language utilization in the correctional education system, with a specific focus on the perspectives and experiences of convicted incarcerated individuals. MATERIALS AND METHODS: The study gathered data from a sample of 20 convicted incarcerated individuals who were actively participating in correctional education programs, using semi-structured interviews as the primary method of data collection. Information on the various forms of language utilization within correctional institutions, the impact of language on the learning experiences of incarcerated individuals, and linguistic obstacles encountered in accessing high-quality education were thematically analyzed. RESULTS: The study revealed that formal language, technical language and everyday language are the various forms of language used in correctional centers. However, the form of language used by the instructor can make or mar the incarcerated person's learning experience thereby defeating the main goal of correctional education. DISCUSSION AND CONCLUSION: Correctional educators should employ clear language to convey information. Insights into the influence of language on the rehabilitation of incarcerated individuals can inform the development of social work curricula.

Expanding the IDEA: Ongoing- and Evolving-Evaluation of an Art Therapy in Prisons Program.

In 2021 an article was published that presented an art therapy in prisons program that emerged through a contractual partnership between a major state university and that state's Department of Corrections, funded by Individuals with Disabilities Education Act (IDEA). The program was charged to provide art therapy with youthful offenders to alleviate behavioral, emotional, and intellectual impediments to their education. The program began in the summer of 2019 with a 3-year contract for two full-time art therapists for four sites. Responses to the annual reports and subsequent changes and benefits to the targeted population resulted in the contract being revised in the summer of 2021 that expanded it considerably, to four full-time art therapists for nine prisons. This follow-up research article will delineate the successful efficacy of this program and the impactful changes instituted since its inception and expansion. In addition, this article will further examine the evolution in the data gathering process, specifically applying more distinct considerations needed to accurately examine the effectiveness of the program.

Creative IDEA: Introducing a Statewide Art Therapy in Prisons Program.

Education is regarded as an avenue for success while the under-educated are disproportionately more likely to be incarcerated and remain within the correctional system. Current prison reforms have focused on increasing access to educational programming. However, these programs are not designed to address the lack of control, poor self-regulation, low emotional intelligence, inadequate social skills, or lack of internal motivation that hinder progress. Art therapy has been found effective in mitigating these impediments. Recognizing this, a partnership arose between a state Department of Corrections and a State University's graduate art therapy program out of which emerged an Art Therapy in Prisons Program, funded through the Individuals with Disabilities Education Act. Two art therapists provided services to youthful male and female offenders in four institutions to assuage these obstacles. This article explores the genesis and development of this program, and the flexible adjustments required to address the impending COVID-19. We conclude how those who participated did indeed demonstrate improvement.

Effects of Astrobiology Lectures on Knowledge and Attitudes about Science in Incarcerated Populations.

The incarcerated population has little or no access to science education programs, STEM resources, or scientists. We explored the effects of a low-cost, potentially high-impact informal science education program that enabled NASA scientists to provide astrobiology lectures to adults inside 16 correctional institutions in three states. Post- versus pre-lecture surveys suggest that presentations significantly increased science content knowledge, positively shifted attitudes about science and scientists, increased a sense of science self-identity, and enhanced behavioral intentions about communicating science. These were significant across ethnicity, gender, education level, and institution type, size, location, and state. Men scored higher than women on pre-lecture survey questions. Among men, participants with greater levels of education and White non-Hispanics scored higher than those with less educational attainment and African American and other minority participants. Increases in science content knowledge were greater for women than men and, among men, for those with lower levels of education and African American participants. Women increased more in science identity than did men. Thus, even limited exposure to voluntary, non-credit science lectures delivered by scientists can be an effective way to broker a relationship to science for this underserved public group and can potentially serve as a step to broaden participation in science.

Schooling while incarcerated as a turning point for serious juvenile and young adult offenders.

INTRODUCTION: Attending school and working are consistently associated with positive outcomes for juvenile offenders returning to the community. METHODS: Using longitudinal data from the Pathways to Desistance Study, we used structural equation modeling to test whether better school experiences while incarcerated was positively connected to adjustment upon release among serious juvenile offenders (91% male) in the U.S. Adjustment was assessed as attending school for 310 legal minors (<18 years), and engaging in work for 259 emerging adults (≥18 years), as well as self-reported delinquency for all participants. RESULTS: Accounting for incarceration and school history, results showed that facility school attachment, but not grades, was associated with decreased delinquency 12 months after release across sex in both age groups. Additionally, facility school attachment predicted engagement in school for returning minors. However, facility school experience was not related to engaging in work for returning emerging adults. CONCLUSIONS: Results indicate that facility school climate matters for all juvenile offenders returning to their communities and that correctional education done right presents an important opportunity to reconnect returning minors with school, an important normative context of development. Conversely, results suggest that returning offenders who have 'aged out' of high school are a separate vulnerable group who may need additional support for successful reentry.

Prisons as Schools: Inmates' Participation in Vocational and Academic Programs in Chinese Prisons.

Although the idea of criminal rehabilitation in China has a long history, research on offender rehabilitation in contemporary China is limited. Although Chinese scholars generally agree that rehabilitation through correctional education helps inmates with social reintegration and reduces recidivism, few have examined factors associated with prisoners' participation in such programs. Building on relevant theory and studies in Western societies, this study examines how Chinese prisoners' participation in vocational and academic programs is associated with a range of push and pull factors. Our research questions are addressed with binary and multinomial logistic regressions based on a unique prisoner data set collected in Zhejiang, China. Results show that some factors found to affect inmate participation in the West failed to demonstrate significant relationships with participation among Chinese prisoners. Furthermore, factors most significantly associated with participation appear to be incarceration related, such as prison visits, prison phone calls, and sentence lengths. We conclude with a discussion of the implications of our results.

Os discursos protetivos e punitivos acerca dos adolescentes em medida de internação no Brasil / Protective and punitive discourses on adolescents in detention in Brazil / Los discursos protectivos y punitivos acerca de los adolescentes en medida de internación en Brasil

Resumo (analítico): Objetiva-se apreender os sentidos de proteção integral no atendimento ao adolescente em medida de internação, modalidade de medida socioeducativa mais aplicada no Brasil na atualidade. Esta pesquisa foi realizada através de entrevista semiestruturada com oito trabalhadores e análise documental do PIA, RTA, evolução do caso, sentença, relatório de avaliação in loco e medida socioeducativa pública, no Centro Educacional Masculino (CEM) em Teresina-PI, Brasil. Sob a perspectiva da análise do discurso, apreendeu-se, com base nos resultados, que os sentidos de proteção integral adquirem caráter de punição, pela compreensão do ato infracional pela ótica individual, naturalizando os processos de violência e culpabilizando a família. Nessa lógica, os discursos protetivo e punitivo alternaram-se, como se fizessem parte de uma mesma lógica de intervenção.

Abstract (analytical): The present article aims to capture the meaning of comprehensive protection that is present in the treatment of adolescents who are in detention for having committed criminal acts. This study was conducted using semi-structured interviews with eight workers and a documental analysis of Individual Assistance Plans, Technical Evaluation Reports, files detailing the progress of cases, sentences, on-site evaluation reports and public socio-educational measures in the Male Educational Centre (MEC) in Teresina-PI, Brazil. Using a discourse analysis perspective, the results showed that the meanings around comprehensive protection were related to punishment, through the understanding of the infraction as the responsibility of the individual, the presence of violence in the young offenders' lives and blaming the family. In this logic, protective and punitive discourses were alternated, as if they were part of the same intervention logic.

Resumen (analítico): El presente artículo tiene como objetivo aprehender los sentidos de protección integral en la atención al adolescente que cumple la medida de internación en el Centro Educativo Masculino (CEM) en Teresina-PI, Brasil. Esta investigación fue desarrollada a través de una entrevista semiestructurada con ocho trabajadores y el análisis documental del Plan Individual de Atención (PIA), del Informe Técnico Evaluativo (ITE), de las fichas de evolución del caso, de la sentencia, del informe de evaluación sobre in locus y de la medida socioeducativa pública. En la perspectiva del análisis del discurso, se aprehendió, con base en los resultados, que los sentidos de protección integral adquieren carácter de castigo, por la comprensión del acto infractor de la óptica individual, naturalizando los procesos de violencia y culpabilizando a la familia. En esa lógica, los discursos protector y punitivo se alternaron, como si formaran parte de una misma lógica de intervención.